Sennheiser HDB 630

[paudio]

Don't see a thread for this yet but reviews are dropping on Youtube. Anyone pull the trigger on one yet? Bit spendy.

HDB 630 | Sennheiser Canada

www.sennheiser-hearing.com

 

[LearningToSmile]

Yeah, I've seen the reviews. I'd dismiss it but having started to use wireless ANC headphones in recent months, I do understand the appeal now. Not personally interested as my Sony WH-1000XM5 sound just fine after some EQ.
The price seems to be roughly $100 over the current Sony WH-1000XM6, if someone is in the market for flagship wireless headphones that doesn't seem that much to pay for better tuning out of the box and the whole audiophile appeal of the Sennheiser brand. The tricky part is that Sony, Bose, and similar brands can always be found at a deep discount after a few months, and I'm not sure we will see the same with these.
I wonder if when used with the USB cable for wired listening does it also provide power bypassing the battery? Didn't see it mentioned in the reviews, and if it was the case, it would give them some extra longevity if the battery ever dies and can't be replaced.

 

[Doodski]

The price seems to be roughly $100 over the current Sony WH-1000XM6, if someone is in the market for flagship wireless headphones that doesn't seem that much to pay for better tuning out of the box and the whole audiophile appeal of the Sennheiser brand. The tricky part is that Sony, Bose, and similar brands can always be found at a deep discount after a few months, and I'm not sure we will see the same with these.

Not sure why you would even comment this way because it is analogous to looking into a crystal ball and creating predictions for the future.

 

[Limopard]

Dunno if it was the right idea to just "pimp" (or refine) the existing M4. It's not a bad headphone for the 200-250 € it costs nowadays. One could have easily made the new tuning and the PEQ available in the app (which generates less revenue, of course). Which part the different drivers contribute to the whole can only be guessed. As far as I understand the specs, Aptx adaptive is included, but not its lossless version. Unless a trustworthy review tells otherwise, for me the M4 and a Cambridge P100 SE seem to be the better deal.

 

[awesome_sheeps]

Would it be silly to consider getting this to use purely in wired mode (at my desk set-up), and to then bring it out only occasionally? On paper, it seems like a good fit for this

 

[Curupira]

$699.95 is a miss for me. They seem to be competing against the Focal Bathys, which already beats this in luxury.

For significantly less you can get the AKG N9 Hybrids, which follows Harman in everything but the bass (it needs a negative shelf on the bass and has a 8khz peak that can be bothersome).

Will wait to see measurements on FR and ANC competence.

EDIT: DMS has one and measured it on his BK 4128. It seems well behaved and better controlled than the Bathys

Gadgetrytech also has one on his 711 clone squig:

If this is confirmed on genuine 711s and from other metrologists, it might be the closest one to Harman yet. I also liked that it seems to have inbuilt PEQ into the APP for EQ enthusiasts, which is a huge win against the competition. Still, $699 is a lot of money for a battery powered wireless device, IMO. Hopefully it will drop in price with time and go on sales.

 

[Tatr76]

£399 about $540 this side

 

[Curupira]

Would it be silly to consider getting this to use purely in wired mode (at my desk set-up), and to then bring it out only occasionally? On paper, it seems like a good fit for this

Miss the hype and wait for more reviews. At launch these products are overly praised, and when the dust settles the latent problems start to arise (like QC problems, shoddy construction and firmware issues). If, after that, they are indeed a Harman OE tuned headphone even in passive mode, I can't see why you couldn't use it in wired like you asked, specially considering the closed back headphone scene is usually hit or miss due to common FR inconsistencies (remember the AKG K361BT and K371 do exist, though).

 

[Berwhale]

I see that Sennheiser have also released an add-on mic cable for the HD 500 & 620S... https://www.sennheiser-hearing.com/en-UK/p/hd-500-bam/

I bought a similar mic cable for my Momentum 2.0, but it was less than half the price from Geekria.. https://shop.geekria.com/products/g...icrophone-and-volume-mute-control-black-5-6ft

 

[jae]

From what I am seeing/hearing, tuning out of the box is essentially a closed version of the HD650/6XX with bass (+2-3 db over harman, with what would be expected from closed headphones as a slight loss of performance in highs around ~>9-10khz). The great thing about them is that it has onboard PEQ (at least five bands for now), which with the extremely neutral and smooth default frequency response of what is essentially a 6XX with bass is more than enough to get any sound you'd probably want out of them. So no need for additional EQ apps/dacs/devices for worrying about EQ and compatibility across iphone, android, computer, TV etc. The price is quite high and the aesthetic design could probably be better, but I have a feeling this one will do extremely well and cannabalize a lot of the high end market even amongst audiophiles. Unless you're specifically looking for something with no internal batteries etc. it is probably going to be better than virtually all other closed headphones out there save one or two, especially when you consider the value-add of all the features.

 

[glomple]

I don't get why they make the earpads so small on all these ANC 'over'-ear headphones. I saw a review say the opening is 58x38mm which I'm pretty sure is smaller than the average human ear (at least according to some quick web searches). This looks like a great product but there's no way for me to wear it without squishing my ears.

 

[kemmler3D]

If this is confirmed on genuine 711s and from other metrologists, it might be the closest one to Harman yet. I also liked that it seems to have inbuilt PEQ into the APP for EQ enthusiasts, which is a huge win against the competition. Still, $699 is a lot of money for a battery powered wireless device, IMO. Hopefully it will drop in price with time and go on sales.

Agree with this. A well tuned ANC set with real PEQ checks some big boxes that aren't usually. But I'd like to see them at least $200 cheaper to even think about it.

(e: turns out they are $200 less than that...?)

 

[jae]

The price is definitely the worst part about them. I bought a Momentum 3 right before COVID since it was probably the "best" ANC headphone at the time in terms of sound fidelity, in anticipation of doing a lot of travelling and not wanting to lug my HD650s around to destinations. Those were similarly overpriced at the time too and did not feel like a confident pruchase but I bit that bullet. Sadly I ended up not doing much travelling because of the travel restrictions and eventually buying a secondary pair of 6XXs overseas anyway, so my Momentum 3 essentially only got used handful of times as glorified ANC earmuffs for noisy plane rides. The sound quality was not good enough justify use as a daily driver for long periods of time especially since I'm not largely fond of wearing closed headphones all day at home. The app did have some rudimentary EQ but the cans just always sounded off, and not having options for PEQ on iphone, sometimes buggy PEQ on android, and not having it at all on my TV etc. basically discouraged more casual use of it. I lost my Momentum 3s on my last plane ride and realised I really can't do without ANC on planes and certain situations anymore, so this seems to solve a lot of problems I had using wireless headphones in the past.

 

[kharan]

Would it be silly to consider getting this to use purely in wired mode (at my desk set-up), and to then bring it out only occasionally? On paper, it seems like a good fit for this

There is no passive mode. It was designed to have its DSP always active and that's how it achieves its default frequency response.

I also assume that like most portable devices, it always uses the battery to power itself, including while it's wired and charging. Arguably, it would be better for longevity to use it in wireless mode only. The manual mentions that the BT dongle supports AptX Lossless, so no problem there either.

TBH, I'm not worried over the number of battery cycle, just regular battery aging with time.

 

[BrooklynNick]

The price in the US is $500 and it comes with the BTD 700 which sells for $60 on Amazon. This guy says it sounds better than every other ANC headphone:

 

[BrooklynNick]

The app apparently lets you A/B your PEQ in real time. I wish Roon could do that.

 

[kemmler3D]

The price in the US is $500 and it comes with the BTD 700 which sells for $60 on Amazon. This guy says it sounds better than every other ANC headphone:

Seems you're right. This will be what I'll recommend to friends if they happen to be poking around this market, assuming the ANC performance is competitive, which I assume it is. $500 seems (relatively) fair for what I've seen in this thread.

 

[thunderchicken]

Highly interested in measurements and a review! This might be ANC set I buy for me- several of my family now have the Sonys.

 

[Matias]

Reviews have been hyping it a lot. Looks promising.

 

[listener650]

I think something like this would be right up Amir's alley, hope he gets it in for review somehow.